Samsung retakes throne as world's top smartphone maker

Samsung Electronics took back its status as the world's top smartphone maker this year, pushing away its US rival, Apple, to the second in line, helped by brisk global sales of budget phones, industrial data showed Wednesday.

TrendForce, a market research company, said Samsung's market share rose to 26.1 percent in the first quarter of this year from 18.5 percent a quarter ago while Apple's share fell to 16.9 percent from 20.3 percent.

Samsung's comeback as the world's largest smartphone maker was attributable to strong sales of its Galaxy J budget smartphones, TrendForce said, adding Samsung was the only company to post considerable growth in first-quarter sales among competitive smartphone producers.

The South Korean company had to step off the throne in the last quarter of 2016 when it ordered a global recall of its Note 7 due to faulty batteries and was left with a gap in its premium flagship smartphone lineup.

However, Samsung's latest flagship smartphone, Galaxy S8, is expected to make limited sales as consumers hold on to their old smartphones, waiting for the next generation of iPhones to be released later this year, the researcher said.